


125. shooting stars

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [339]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 20:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11089011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: Sarah hugs Helena. Her sister is a warm solid anchor of a weight, and she smells absolutely disgusting. “When’s the last time you showered?” Sarah says.“I don’t know,” Helena says. “Hello,sestra. I missed you.”





	125. shooting stars

**Author's Note:**

> _and i was thinking maybe somewhere down the road / after all our stories have been told_

The train pulls into the station and Sarah watches her sister step off of it. Helena has a huge, jangling backpack, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, mismatched layers of scarves and sweaters. She is the brightest thing in the entire train station, and not just because some of those sweaters are unreal neon colors.

“Hey,” Sarah says, loud enough to be heard over the din, and then she says “ _oof_ ” as Helena collides with her. Helena laughing into her shoulder. The two of them spinning in circles, here at the train station, one moment overwriting another one. Helena, Sarah realizes, might not even know that Beth—

Doesn’t matter. She hugs Helena back. Her sister is a warm solid anchor of a weight, and she smells absolutely disgusting. “When’s the last time you showered?” Sarah tells her shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Helena says. “Hello, _sestra_. I missed you.”

“Yeah,” Sarah says. “Missed you too.” She leans back, studies Helena, rubs at her upper arms a bit. “Been months.”

“Yes,” Helena says. She steps back and holds open her arms wide: _ta-dah_. “But here I am.”

“Here you are,” Sarah says.

They bump through the train station, out into the sun. Sarah kicks a rock along the curb and studies the feeling of it: waiting at the station for someone else to step off of a train. When Helena had gotten on that train, a few months ago, Sarah had gone home and hugged Felix tight because she got it. A little bit. What it’s like, to watch your sister get on a train and leave you.

It feels good now that Helena’s home, though. She’s chewing what looks like a big slab of peanut brittle; Sarah has _no_ idea where she got it.

“Oh, shit,” Sarah says. “Thought we were gonna get lunch.”

Helena gives her a confused look. “Why would we not get lunch,” she says, and eats more peanut brittle. When she passes it to Sarah, Sarah gnaws a chunk of it off. Sweet salt in her mouth, and they’re walking through Toronto, and Helena is home.

“You missed all sorts of shit,” she says. “Shoulda seen when we had to move Delphine and Cosima into their apartment, bloody nightmare.”

“How are my babies,” Helena says. “ _Sestra_ Alison sends me electric mails every month with many lists of bullets, but. Sometimes the words are not what I need. About them.”

“They’re – good,” Sarah says. “Really good. Neither of them’ve started walking yet, you didn’t miss that.” She finds another rock and kicks it. It rolls about a meter and then topples off the curb and into the street. “Kira’s really excited to see you, she said she’s makin’ peanut butter ‘n sausage. Don’t know _why_ , but. Now you know.”

Helena giggles to herself. She bumps her shoulder into Sarah’s. “How are you,” she says.

Sarah considers. “Good,” she says, to her own surprise. “Yeah. It’s been – yeah. Longest I’ve been home for – wow. A long bloody time.”

“I thought about you,” Helena says quietly. “When I was walking, and bussing, and also driving in cars and trains. I thought about you waking up at the same time every morning and going to bed in the same bed every night and I was glad for you. Did you drink tea.”

“Maybe a little,” Sarah says, and tilts a smile in Helena’s direction. Helena reflects it back to her. Sarah shoulders open the door to the cafe they were headed to; Helena follows, into the cozy din and smell of hashbrowns. They sit. Sarah sheds her coat, and Helena makes a determined effort to shake off a few of the scarves and sweaters before she gives up.

“I thought about you,” Sarah says, picking up the thread again. “Out there. Finding yourself, however that went.”

“No,” Helena says. “I knew where I was.” She thumps her chest with the heel of her hand. “But. I did not know who I was. And so I went. And now I am looking in the mirror and I know who she is. And it is very good.” She picks up a sugar packet from the container on the table, rips it open and dumps the whole thing into her mouth. Swallows.

“Sounds nice,” Sarah says. She picks up her own sugar packet and rips it to pieces, sends sugar scattering over the table. “Oh. Shit.”

Helena lets out a choky little laugh and does absolutely nothing to help. She picks up a menu and reads all of it. “Did you know,” she says, “that there are many ways to eat eggs, and they are all good. I tried them. Scramble is the best kind. So now you do not have to go see yourself. I will tell you.”

Sarah sweeps all the sugar into a neat little pile, all of it collected in one place. “So when S asks how it went out there,” she says, “I’ll tell ‘er you learned who you were by eating a lot of bloody eggs.”

Helena laughs. “No,” she says, drawing the word out: _nooo_. “Also I robbed a bank!”

The waitress swings by the table before Sarah can pick that one apart. Helena orders six things – none of which are eggs – and Sarah gets tea and a sandwich. The waitress leaves. “I think I can pay,” Helena says, and rummages in her pockets. She dumps things on the table. Some of those things are even coins.

“I got it,” Sarah says. “Consider it a welcome-home present.”

“Food,” Helena says, and grins. “A very good present, _sestra_.”

“Spent months thinkin’ of it.”

Across the table Helena looks at her, eyes enormous and wide. “I missed you,” she says, and then frowns. “I said this.”

“No,” Sarah says, “I missed you too. Felt like a long time.” She swallows. “Too long, meathead. Take shorter discovery trips, yeah?”

“Oh,” Helena says, “no, there will not be anymore. Now I am done.” Sarah drums her fingers on the table and studies her sister, tries to see the thing in Helena that makes her so certain that she’ll never need to run off again. Where is it? It must be in there, solid like a weight or bright like the sun. But Sarah can’t see anything, just greasy hair and new freckles spattering Helena’s face.

“Do I have food,” Helena says, touching her fingers to her lower lip.

“No,” Sarah says, “you’re alright.” She tilts her head to the side, says it again with the ghost of a question mark: “You’re alright.”

Helena sucks her lips between her teeth and nods, hesitant at first and then solid. She’s alright.

“I’m really glad,” Sarah says quietly, and means it. Under the table Helena’s foot bumps into hers, clumsy, and Helena pulls her lips out of her mouth so she can smile at Sarah. Sarah bumps her foot against Helena’s, and smiles back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


End file.
